Williams to end engine partnership with Toyota
14 Oct 2009

Williams confirmed on Wednesday that they will cease using Toyota engines at the end of this year. The British teams cars have been powered by the Japanese automakers V8s for the past three seasons and in that time they have scored 93.5 world championship points together, including three podiums.

At a time of great difficulty for us as a team, Toyota stepped forward and agreed to supply us with engines for 2007 through to the end of 2009, said team principal Frank Williams. Toyota has been a very decent partner who have always respected our independence and provided us with a first-rate technical product.

Williams previously enjoyed a six-season long partnership with BMW. This ended at the end of 2005 when the German car company began its relationship with Sauber. Williams then used Cosworth engines for their 2006 campaign before linking up with Toyota. That contract was extended earlier this year, but has been terminated by mutual agreement at Williams request.

We are proud that we have been able to work with such a great company and we are grateful to the team in Cologne for their support, added Williams. I would like to single out for our thanks the Toyota engineers and technicians who have worked within our race team tirelessly for the past three years.

Tadashi Yamashina, Chairman of Toyota Motorsport, commented: "We have enjoyed a productive working relationship with Williams and I believe both companies have benefited from that partnership. We respect the wishes of Williams to look for other opportunities and wish them well for the future."

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